Tom & Frank McLaury were sons of Margaret
Rowland (1812-1859) and Robert McLaury (1811-1893). Their mothers side
came from a Scottish Irish family that had specialized in raising pure-bred
sheep. Robert McLaury was a successful attorney.

Together they had eleven children:

Ebenezer (1833)

Margaret Findley (1836)

Hugh (1838)

Edmund (1840)

Mary (1842)

William Rowland "Will" (1844)

Marjorie Agnes (1846)

Robert Findley "Frank" (1848)

Christiana (1851)

Thomas Clark "Tom" (1853)

Sarah Caroline (1855)

McLaury, MacLaughry, or McLowery?

Some people believe that the McLaury’s real last
name was actually MacLaughry and would later be changed to McLaury on tax
records, by a close friend and Deputy Sheriff named Billy Breakenridge.
Also, newspaper editors sometimes misspelled their name as McLowery.

Frank McLaury is born...

March 3, 1848

Robert Findley "Frank" McLaury was born in Courtright
Center, N.Y. in the foothills of the Catskills.

Tom McLaury is born...

June 30, 1853

Thomas "Tom" McLaury was born in Courtright Center,
N.Y. in the foothills of the Catskills.

The McLaury Family moves to Iowa...

1855

The family moved to Iowa, settling in Belle Plaine.
It was here in Belle Plaine, that Frank and Tom got their education at
a local common school or academy, both studied pre-law. Oldest brother
William or "Will" received his degree in law and later became a superior
court judge in Fort Worth, Texas.

Mrs. McLaury dies...

1859

After the death of their mother in 1859, during
a typhoid epidemic, the eleven children of the family made their home with
their grandfather.

Frank and Tom move to Arizona...

1878

Frank and Tom McLaury moved to Hereford, Arizona,
where they built a windowless, door less, shelter. It was at this time
that the two McLaury brothers became close friends and business associates
with the Clanton family. The two McLaury brothers were always known as
fine dressers.

Finding profit in the cattle
business...

1879

Frank and Tom spent most of their time with a
herd of Mexican steers they purchased with money they brought with them
from Iowa. After selling off the herd for a good profit, the two McLaury
brothers saw an opportunity to continue profiting from the cattle business.
The brothers pre-empted land at Soldiers Holes, west of the new town of
Tombstone. Here they built a an adobe house and labored hard and long hours
laying out irrigated alfalfa fields. They were the pioneers of alfalfa
growing in this region.

Tarnishing their good reputations...

Frank and Tom McLaury worked hard, were of excellent
reputation, did not go often to Tombstone and seemed to stay out of the
bright lights. However, because they lived on a ranch outside of town,
they became friends and business associates with not so good cattle men
passing by like Curly Bill Brocius, that began to tarnish their good reputations.

Frank and Tom are arrested when
their friend shoots the Marshal...

October 27, 1880

On this night in Tombstone, Frank and Tom McLaury
were arrested at the scene of the accidental shooting of Tombstone Marshal
Fred White. Frank and Tom were amongst a group "mischief seeking" cowboys
that were shooting their guns at the moon and having a good time on sixth
street, when Marshal Fred White appeared on the scene to stop the disturbance.
When the Marshal tried to disarm Curly Bill Brocius, he jerked Curly Bills
cocked 45 caliber pistol barrel first, at which time Curly Bill accidentally
pulled the trigger shooting Marshal White in the stomach. Before Marshal
White eventually died of from these wounds, he admitted that it was an
accident. Curly Bill was cleared of murder.

Early in 1881

Sherman McMasters, the outlaw who had been Wyatt
Earps friend in Dodge City, stole a valuable thoroughbred horse from E.B.
Gage, the general manager of the Contention Mine in Tombstone. After a
tip from Ike Clanton, Sheriff Billy Breakenridge recovered the stolen horse
from a corral at the McLaury Ranch. It was at this time, that Sheriff Breakenridge
openly accused the two McLaury brothers of hanging out with bad blood.
Curly Bill Brocius and other accused outlaws were present when Breakenridge
arrived at the McLaury ranch. The McLaury’s responded to Breakenridges
accusations with, "Nobody goes hungry when they stop by our ranch."

Frank and Tom are murdered...

October 26, 1881

Frank and Tom McLaury are murdered by the Earp
brothers and Doc Holliday, in a vacant lot behind the OK Corral in Tombstone.
Both are buried side by side in Tombstone’s Boothill Graveyard next to
Billy Clanton, who was also murdered.

Brother "Will" McLaury seeks
the truth...

November 8, 1881

Frank and Tom’s oldest brother, attorney, William
or "Will" McLaury arrives in Tombstone to find out how and why his brothers
and young Billy Clanton were murdered. After the Earps and Doc Holliday
were set free and cleared of the murders, many historians believe that
Will McLaury was the person who organized the "Vigilante Justice" that
shot and crippled Virgil Earp and murdered Morgan Earp.